Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	food_n	life_n	5,913	5	4.9908	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57939	A looking-glass for England wherein is shewn God's mercies and judgments on this sinful nation; with an earnest invitation to poor sinners to repentance: wherein is set forth the great folly and madness of forsaking Christ their redeemer, and neglecting the care of their immortal souls, and setting their cares upon the vanities of this world; ... with some hints of the present judgments that now hangs over our heads, which will suddenly fall on us, if we neglect to return our thanks to almighty God for our late deliverances, and the speedy reforming of our lives. To which is added, the great joy and comfort of the godly that have harkened to the voice of the Lord, and have fasted and prayed to God for his blessings, and given thanks for all mercies received. By Robert Russel, in Sussex.	Russel, Robert, fl. 1692.	1696 (1696)	Wing R2347H; ESTC R219970	10,107	25

the Word and then afterwards the rest of the Day they spend in the Ale-house among their sinful Companions and perhaps at night they come home more then half Drunk from the Ale-house and so they sin to keep a Fast but it is but a mook Fast and so instead of standing in the Gap to stop God's Judgments from coming upon themselves and the Nation they by their hypocricy and dissimulation and wicked doings provoke God to hasten his Judgments upon them and these sort of People are as bad or worse then those that Work all day and keep no Fast at all these Men are like unto those the Peophet Amos complains of Amos 6.6 That drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief oyntments but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph Thus many Men will drink and sing and indolge the Flesh but don't consider what a distressed and afflicted condition poor England is in but perhaps some may be ready to say How shall we do to keep a true and excepted Fast to the Lord. I answer A true Fast doth not consist in fasting from corporal Food but it consisteth chiefly in mourning for Sin in crucising and mortifying Sin and fleshly Lust and turning from it and forsaking it but if you desire indeed to keep a true and acceptable Fast I shall be willing to give you di ections how to do it in a few word when a publick Fast-day comes resolve with yourselves to set apart yourselves from the World for that Day as on a Sabbath-day and in the morning as soon as you awake consider with yourselves what a worthy Work you are a going about that Day and lift up your heart to God in Prayer that he would inable you to go through with it and this done then look back upon your Life past search and examine diligently your Hearts and Lives to find out your Sins together with the time place circumstances and manner how they were committed and then spread them all before the Lord by a hearty and sincere Confession search diligently to find out all your hypocracy and rottenness of Heart all your beloved and flesh-pleasing Sins and then labour to bring them close to your Consicience and then confess them with as much contrition and brokenness of Heart as you can and then be earnest with God at the throne of Grace that he would give you a full discharge that he would pardon them and wash them away in the Blood of Christ and then likewise be earnest with the Lord for strength and power to overcome them and then make a firm resolution with yourselves in the strength of Christ to forsake them and to endeavour to lead a new Life and this Work if done throughly will take up your Morning time and then when this is done go to Church amongst God's People in publick in confessing and bewailing your Sins and the Sins of the Nation and pleading with them at the Throne of Grace that God would look in mercy upon this sinful Nation and that he would remove his Judgments from us and also that God would prosper the King in his Undertaking and shield and defend him from all Plots and Conspiracies of his blood-thirsty Enemies and then when publick Exercise is ended let not the evening of the Day be spent in vain Pleasures and sinful Delights but after you come home to refresh your Bodies with the good things of this Life for until that time it is convenient if you can bear it to fast from Food all the Day besides until you come home from publick Exercices so that you be not thereby disenabled to perform the Work of the Day that by fasting you might afflict your Bodies as well as your Souls but however after publick Exercises is ended and when you come home and recruited yourselyes with Food let not the evening of the Day be spent vainly and idlely but go every one in private and those pour out your Souls to God and wrestle with him for pardoning and renewing Grace and Mercy to your own Souls and for publick Mercies to this Nation and let the rest of the Evening be spent in Reading Prayer and such holy Exercises And now let me speak a word or two to the Rich and such as are blessed with the good things of this Life I desire you not to think that you have done enough when you have distributed something to the Poor in a way of Collection amongst the Congregation but let me beseech every one of you that dayly imploy poor Labourers that when publick Exercises are ended that you would invite them home to your Houses and also their Wives and Children and others of your poor Neighbours that live near you be perswaded to invite them home to your Houses set them at your Tables and cause them to partake with you of those bodily Refreshments as God in his Mercy hath given unto you and then you will find that you will be no looser for this is the way to bring a Blessing upon your Heads and upon your Stores this is to keep unto the Lord a true Fast indeed this is that Fast which the Lord hath chosen as the Lord spake by the Prophit Isa 58.4 5 6 7. It is not to take our own pleasure and to smite with the fist of wickedness But faith the Lord This is the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the opprissed go 〈◊〉 and that you break every yoke 〈◊〉 It is not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou bide not thyself from thine own flesh Now this is the Fast which the Lord will except and he 'll reward you abundantly both in this World and the World to come you have a faithful Promise for it in Scripture Prov. 19.17 He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again And now as I have spoken by way of Reproof and Exhortation to such as prophane Days of publick Fasting and Humiliation so also I must speak or write a few words by way of Reproof and Exhortation to such as profane Days of publick Thanksgiving for Mercies and Deliverances but you may say How are Dayes of publick Thanksgiving profaned Now to answer this Objection It is a general course amongst us here in England that when there is a Day of Thanksgiving appointed by Authority to return Prayers and Thanks to God for publick Deliverance or publick Preservation it is I say a general custom among us especially in Cities and great Towns after publick Exercise is ended to prophane the Day by Drinking Ringing Shooting and making of Burnfires and if a Day of Thanksgiving be appointed to be on a Sabbath-day it is all one with most People they regard no more God's own